So you know the Drupal project I was happily toodling along on? I thought I’d been pretty up-front about what we could realistically do in the timeframe, and the project manager was on the same page with me. Some wires must’ve been crossed somewhere, because today I handled the status update with the client and we had one of those difficult resynchronization conversations. Oh dear. It might be a bit of a scramble to solidify the additional components in time for the launch.

The clients asked if anything bad had happened. No, it was perfectly normal developmental progress based on the requirements we discussed. It just took time.

After the call, I had a quick chat with my manager. I told him what was going on, and we talked about some other projects in the pipeline. He asked me if I was stressed out.

“I can’t be stressed out. Stressing out gets in the way of code,” I said. “I just have to knuckle down and get through it.”

I worked on user registration some more and got that sorted out. Then I took a nap. Naps become even more important in crunch times. They help me reset my mind and avoid negative productivity.

I worked on user profiles some more. Then I started writing this blog post. Writing is important to me. I can postpone reading books, playing the piano, or responding to personal mail. (I might be a little slow in responding; if so, you know why!) Writing is good, though. So is spending time with W- and J-.

It’s a good project, and I think we can make it all work – not by scrambling to work tons of overtime, but by being very clear about what’s needed for a minimum viable product. We’re going to focus on just the things needed to get them off the ground, and we’ll see what else we can do from there.